115 teams to compete in 24th NABA tournament in Canada

At least 115 teams from various cities will compete in the 24th annual North America Basketball Association (NABA) tournament to be held in North York, Ontario, Canada on September 3-4, 2011, it was reported.

NABA Commissioner Ron Damasco said that the association is now in the thick of preparations for the holding of the tournament to be participated in by players who are Filipino migrants and those with Filipino ancestry.

In a related development, Damasco announced that three NABA member-groups will not be allowed to compete in the tournament because they failed to beat the deadline for the submission of teams’ lineups. These groups are from Chicago, Orlando (Florida) and Illinois.

The three groups were duly notified of the deadline and given reminders but they failed to respond accordingly, he said.

Damasco, who is also the commissioner of the Philippine Basketball Association of Michigan (PBA-Michigan), said the suspension of the three groups from competing in the North York games is a bitter pill to swallow “but we have to enforce the rules.”

This is particularly disappointing in the case of the Chicago group because its team in the open division is the defending champion, having dominated the competition in that division in last year’s tournament in Jersey Shores, New Jersey, the commissioner said.

Damasco said, however, that despite this development, he still expects the teams joining the coming tournament to be fiercely competitive and the games to be as thrilling as those in the past.

He said there are more teams joining this year’s games, noting that the 115 teams that have already signed up are three more than the number (112) of teams that competed in the New Jersey tournament last year.

Meanwhile, members of PBA-Michigan’s teams that will be competing in the North York games have stepped up their practice and physical conditioning.

PBA will be fielding six teams in the 24th edition of the prestigious tournament.